Nine days after Donald Trump began bombing multiple countries in a manner which was equal parts bombastic and fruitless, questions have reached a fevered pitch as to whether it’s all been a mere stunt to try to salvage his historic lack of popularity. But as it turns out, his Gallup approval rating is even lower now than it was just before he began blowing things up.

Trump began his current string of military escapades on the evening of April 6th by firing fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles into an air base in Syria. But despite the powerful and sophisticated nature of the U.S. weaponry, and the primitive nature of the Syrian base, virtually no damage was done (link) – and the base was seen launching planes just hours later. His Gallup approval rating earlier that day had been pegged right at 40%. So where is it now?

In the intervening days, as Trump’s Syria stunt failed to impress much of anyone outside of certain cable news pundits, he moved on to dispatching warships to the Korean Peninsula – but that move has only served to produce confusion and uncertainty among Americans. Then he dropped what’s called the “Mother of all Bombs” in Afghanistan, but despite its high cost and stunning breadth of power, it appears to have accomplished little more than wiping out some ISIS grunts who were not important targets (CNN). There is also reasonable doubt as to how legitimate the supposed body count is, with Afghanistan having generated far too quickly after such a widespread and devastating blast.

There is also scattered debate about whether the “MOAB” was even the right kind of bomb to be using on Afghan tunnels, raising questions of whether Donald Trump may have merely used the biggest bomb he had as yet another stunt-like distraction. If you’re looking for evidence that Trump’s military escapades are failing to impress mainstream Americans and are instead merely generating more skepticism about his motives, one need look no further than his current Gallup approval rating today. It’s at 39% (link), one point lower than just before he bombed Syria. And other approval rating polls have him even lower, in the mid thirties. Contribute to Palmer Report

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